JP2013106274A - Recording control system, recorder, recording control method and recording control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To appropriately save a recording capacity of a recording medium by considering a characteristic of a series program.SOLUTION: A recording control method for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave in a recording medium includes the steps of: identifying a series program consisting of a plurality of programs; reserving recording to record the plurality of programs at every time; acquiring statistical information on the programs broadcast prior to the n-th program in the series program before the n-th program (n≥2) is broadcast among the plurality of programs; and stopping the reservation of the recording of the whole programs after the n-th program in the series program on the basis of the acquired statistical information.

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording control system, a recording apparatus, a recording control method, and a recording control program for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium.

  In recent years, the recording capacity of recording media such as hard disks has dramatically increased, and a recording device that receives multiple channels of TV broadcast waves in parallel and automatically records all programs for multiple channels on the recording media has been put into practical use. Has been. However, since the recording capacity of the recording medium is limited, it is difficult to continue recording all programs for a plurality of channels.

  Under such circumstances, the following techniques for saving the recording capacity of the recording medium have been proposed. The recording apparatus described in Patent Literature 1 acquires the audience rating of a program for one week last week from a server, and selectively reserves a recording program for a program with a high audience rating. The recording device described in Patent Document 2 acquires the audience rating and playback rate of a program from the server, and compresses or deletes a program with a lower audience rating and playback rate among recorded programs.

JP 2007-43401 A JP 2006-25152 A

  However, the conventionally proposed technology is processing in units of programs, and does not consider whether the program is continuous (ie, a series program) such as a drama or animation. Therefore, it can be recorded in a state where a part of a plurality of programs (for example, initial program) constituting the series program is missing.

  Since the series program should be viewed in order from the first time, the series program that is partially missing has a low viewing value for the user. Therefore, the conventional technology has a problem that the recording capacity of the recording medium cannot be appropriately saved in consideration of the characteristics of the series program.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording control system, a recording apparatus, a recording control method, and a recording control program that can appropriately save the recording capacity of a recording medium in consideration of the characteristics of a series program.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention has the following features.

  The recording control system of the present invention is provided on a network with a recording device (for example, recording / reproducing device 100) that records a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium (for example, HDD 120), and information regarding the viewing status of the program. A recording control system comprising a server (for example, the aggregation server 10) for managing statistical information for each program, wherein the recording device identifies a series program comprising a plurality of programs, and A control unit (for example, the control unit 170) that reserves recording so as to record the program of each time, and the control unit before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program is broadcast among the plurality of programs. , Acquisition means (for example, processor 170a) for acquiring statistical information from the server about programs broadcast in the past from the n-th program among the series programs, Based on the obtained statistical information, said stop means to stop the recording reservation for all programs of the subsequent n-th program of the program series (e.g., processor 170a), characterized in that it comprises a, a.

  Since such a recording control system makes a recording reservation so that a plurality of programs constituting the series program are recorded every time, a part of the plurality of programs (for example, the first program) is recorded in a missing state. Can be prevented. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not appropriate to continue recording reservations based on statistical information about programs broadcast in the past, recording reservations for all subsequent programs in the series program can be canceled. The recording capacity of the recording medium can be saved.

  Therefore, the recording control system of the present invention can appropriately save the recording capacity of the recording medium in consideration of the characteristics of the series program.

  The recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording apparatus (for example, recording / reproducing apparatus 100) for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium (for example, HDD 120), and specifies a series program composed of a plurality of programs. And a control unit (for example, control unit 170) that reserves recording so as to record the plurality of programs every time, and the control unit broadcasts the nth (n ≧ 2) program among the plurality of programs. Acquisition means (for example, the processor 170a) for acquiring statistical information from a server (for example, the aggregation server 10) about the programs broadcast before the n-th program among the series programs before the acquisition, and the acquired And a canceling unit (for example, the processor 170a) for canceling the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program among the series programs based on the statistical information. The features.

  According to another feature of the recording apparatus of the present invention, when the recording unit cancels the recording reservation for all the programs after the n-th program among the series programs, the control unit starts from the first program (n -1) It further includes deletion means (for example, processor 170a) for deleting all the recorded programs up to the first program from the recording medium.

  According to another characteristic of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the control unit sets a threshold according to statistical information about a predetermined number of times past the n-th program among the series programs (for example, Processor 170a) and counting means for comparing the statistical information with the threshold for each program from the predetermined program to the n-th program in the series program, and counting the number of times the statistical information is less than or equal to the threshold (for example, Processor 170a), and the canceling unit cancels the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program among the series programs when the number of times counted by the counting unit exceeds a specified number To do. According to another characteristic of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the setting means adjusts the threshold according to the free space of the recording medium.

  According to another characteristic of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the control unit further includes specifying means (for example, a processor 170a) for specifying the series program based on the television broadcast wave or an electronic program guide obtained from the network. The specifying means includes at least one of a program name for each program included in the electronic program guide, genre information for each program included in the electronic program guide, or a specific symbol for each program included in the electronic program guide. The series program is specified on the basis of the one.

  According to another aspect of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the deletion unit detects the last program among the series programs, and then, based on the statistical information about the series program, has already been recorded in the series program. Are deleted from the recording medium.

  According to another characteristic of the recording apparatus of the present invention, the statistical information includes the viewing number, viewing rate, playback number, playback rate, move number, move rate, copy number, copy rate, reserved recording number, reservation for each program. It is at least one of the recording rate, the number of deletions, or the deletion rate.

  The recording control method of the present invention is a recording control method for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium, the step of identifying a series program composed of a plurality of programs, and recording the plurality of programs each time. And recording statistics of the series of programs broadcast before the n-th program before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program of the plurality of programs is broadcast. A step of acquiring information, and a step of canceling a recording reservation for all the programs after the n-th program among the series programs based on the acquired statistical information.

  The recording control program of the present invention is a recording control program for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium, the step of specifying a series program consisting of a plurality of programs in a recording device, and the plurality of times A recording reservation to record the program every time, and before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program among the plurality of programs is broadcast, the series program was broadcast before the n-th program Obtaining statistical information about a program from a server, and canceling recording reservations for all programs after the n-th program among the series programs based on the obtained statistical information. Features.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a recording control system, a recording apparatus, a recording control method, and a recording control program that can appropriately save the recording capacity of a recording medium in consideration of the characteristics of a series program.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a recording control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the aggregation server which concerns on embodiment of this invention. An example of statistical information for each program is shown. 1 is a block diagram of a recording / playback apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the recording / reproducing apparatus with respect to a first time program among series programs. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the recording / reproducing apparatus with respect to the program (namely, nth program) after the 2nd time among series programs. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the recording / reproducing apparatus after the last program in a series program.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the drawings according to the following embodiments, the same or similar parts are denoted by the same or similar reference numerals.

(Overall configuration of recording control system)
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a recording control system according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the recording control system according to the present embodiment is provided on a network 1 with a recording / playback apparatus 100 that records and plays back a program included in a digital television broadcast wave, and aggregates information related to the viewing status of the program. And a summary server 10 that manages statistical information for each program.

  In the following, “program” refers to one video / audio content broadcast on a specific date and time and a specific channel, and “series program” refers to a program group composed of a plurality of continuous programs.

  In the present embodiment, a plurality of recording / playback apparatuses 100 (100-1 to 100-k) are provided. The recording / playback apparatus 100 is connected to the network 1 and installed so as to be communicable with the aggregation server 10. The recording / playback apparatus 100 is configured to be able to simultaneously record programs for a plurality of channels (all channels). The network 1 is, for example, the Internet, and the aggregation server 10 is installed at a position on the Internet that can be accessed from each recording / playback apparatus 100.

(Configuration of aggregation server)
Next, the configuration of the aggregation server 10 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the aggregation server 10.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the tabulation server 10 performs various controls with a communication unit 11 for communicating with each recording / playback apparatus 100, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 12 for storing statistical information, and the like. And a control unit 13. The control unit 13 includes a processor 13a and a memory 13b used as a work area for the processor 13a.

  The communication unit 11 receives information regarding the viewing status of the program in the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 from the recording / reproducing apparatus 100. Information about the viewing status of the program includes that the program has been played (viewed) in real time, that the recorded program has been played, that the recorded program has been moved (or copied), that the program has been reserved, This is information indicating that the program has been deleted. In this way, the recording / playback apparatus 100 transmits information to that effect to the tabulation server 10 when any of the viewing, playback, move (or copy), reserved recording, and deletion operations are performed.

  Note that a program is identified by a combination of a program name and a date, or a combination of a program name and a broadcast time if it is a series program.

  The processor 13a aggregates information received by the communication unit 11, stores statistical information for each program in the HDD 12, and updates the statistical information stored in the HDD 12 as appropriate. Such statistical information for each program indicates the popularity for each program. FIG. 3 shows an example of statistical information for each program. The processor 13a manages statistical information for each program in a table, and updates the statistical information of the corresponding program every time the communication unit 11 receives new information from the recording / playback apparatus 100.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the statistical information for each program includes real-time viewing number (or viewing rate), playback number (or playback rate), number of moves (or move rate), reserved recording number (or reserved recording rate), and deletion. It consists of a number (or deletion rate). In addition, when information on the playback speed, the fast-forward playback time, and the same-time playback time of the program is obtained from the recording / playback apparatus 100, the playback speed information is also managed as statistical information, (Or audience rating), playback count (or playback rate), number of moves (or move rate), reserved recording count (or reserved recording rate), deletion count (or deletion rate), corrected by the playback speed information May be. Furthermore, it is preferable to manage statistical information for each region, not statistical information for all regions.

  With regard to the real-time viewing number (or viewing rate), if the viewing rate is low in the total viewing number (denominator) such as a daytime program, it is determined that the program has a high viewing rate if there is a certain amount of viewing. In such a case, the “popularity” of the program can be appropriately judged by using the number of views. The number of viewers is determined by identifying the number of viewers who are viewing the program from the image input from the camera (not shown) through the input unit 150 by using the existing image recognition technology. Although the “number of viewers” when sending to the server 10 may be used, generally, the number of viewers may be the total number of viewers counted in units of the recording / playback apparatus 100.

  The number of reproductions may be the number of reproductions in units of the recorded recording / reproducing apparatus 100, the total number of reproductions counted for each reproduction and totaled by the aggregation server 10, or the number of reproductions in each recording / reproducing apparatus 100. May be an average value. In addition to the playback number or instead of the playback number, the playback rate may be used. The reproduction rate indicates the ratio of the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 that has been reproduced even once. The number of moves may be the number of moves in units of the recorded recording / reproducing apparatus 100, may be the total number of moves counted for each move and totaled by the aggregation server 10, or the number of moves in each recording / reproducing apparatus 100. May be an average value. In addition to the number of moves or instead of the number of moves, a move rate may be used. The move rate indicates the ratio of the recording / playback apparatus 100 that has moved even once. Note that “move” refers to transferring a program recorded by the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 to an external recording medium. In addition to the number of moves (or move rate), or instead of the number of moves (or move rate), the number of copies (or copy rate) may be used. Copying refers to transferring a copy of the program to an external recording medium while leaving the program recorded by the recording / playback apparatus 100.

  The number of reserved recordings (or reserved recording rate) may be the reserved recording number or the reserved recording rate by applying the same concept as the real-time viewing number (or viewing rate). Note that the reserved recording means that the recording reserved by the recording reservation process is executed.

  The number of deletions (or deletion rate) may be a deletion rate based on the number of recording / playback apparatuses 100 that have recorded the corresponding program as a denominator and the number of recording / playback apparatuses 100 that have deleted the corresponding program as a numerator. It may be a number (deletion number).

  The processor 13a determines the number of real-time viewing (or viewing rate), the number of playbacks (or playback rate), the number of moves (or move rate), the number of reserved recordings (or reserved recording rate), and the number of deletions (or deletion rate) for each program. In response to a request from the recording / reproducing apparatus 100, any statistical information is transmitted (distributed) to the recording / reproducing apparatus 100. The processor 13a substitutes the real-time viewing number (or viewing rate), playback number (or playback rate), number of moves (or move rate), reserved recording number (or reserved recording rate), and deletion number (or deletion rate) into the formula. Then, the calculation may be performed, and the calculation result may be transmitted to the recording / playback apparatus 100 as statistical information. In the following, description will be given assuming a case where the real-time viewing number is transmitted to the recording / playback apparatus 100 as statistical information.

(Configuration of recording and playback device)
Next, the configuration of the recording / playback apparatus 100 will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the recording / playback apparatus 100.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the recording / playback apparatus 100 includes a receiving unit 110 that receives a digital TV broadcast wave converted into an electrical signal by an antenna 101, an HDD 120 that records a program included in the digital TV broadcast wave, and an HDD 120. A playback unit 130 that plays back a recorded program, a communication unit 140 that communicates with the summary server 10, an input unit 150 that receives user input, a clock unit 160 that outputs the current date and time, and various controls. And a control unit 170.

  The antenna 101 may be outside or inside the recording / reproducing apparatus 100. The receiving unit 110 may be outside the recording / playback apparatus 100. Further, FIG. 4 illustrates a configuration in which a display and a speaker for outputting a program reproduced by the reproduction unit 130 are not included in the recording / reproducing apparatus 100, but a display and a speaker are included in the recording / reproducing apparatus 100. May be.

  The receiving unit 110 includes a plurality of tuners 111-1 to 111 -m corresponding to a plurality of channels. Each of the tuners 111-1 to 111 -m receives, demodulates, and decodes a channel designated from the control unit 170 and outputs a program to the HDD 120. Further, each of the tuners 111-1 to 111-m acquires and outputs an electronic program guide (EPG) included in the digital television broadcast wave according to an instruction from the control unit 170.

  The HDD 120 simultaneously records a plurality of programs output from the tuners 111-1 to 111 -m. The HDD 120 is not limited to being built in the recording / reproducing apparatus 100, and may be connected via a bus interface such as a USB (not shown) of the recording / reproducing apparatus 100, or may be connected via a network interface. Instead of the HDD 120, another recording medium (for example, SSD (Solid State Drive)) may be used. The reproduction unit 130 reads out the program designated by the control unit 170 from the HDD 120, and reproduces and outputs the read program. The reproducing unit 130 includes, for example, an MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) decoder.

  The communication unit 140 accesses the aggregation server 10 in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 170, and performs communication with the aggregation server 10 according to a protocol such as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

  The input unit 150 includes, for example, a remote control having a channel designation button, a volume adjustment button, a playback button, a recording button, a recording reservation button, a fast forward / rewind button, and the like. The input unit 150 converts the input content received from the user into an electrical signal and outputs it to the control unit 170. Or when counting the number of viewers through a camera, the input part 150 is connected with the said camera.

  The timer unit 160 outputs information on the current date and time (date and time) to the control unit 170.

  The control unit 170 includes a processor 170a and a memory 170b used as a work area for the processor 170a. The processor 170a executes a recording control program to perform recording control described later.

  Based on the user input received by the input unit 150, the processor 170a executes operations such as real-time playback of a program, playback of a recorded program, move (or copy) of a recorded program, reserved recording of a program, and deletion of a recorded program. . When these operations are performed, the processor 170a controls the communication unit 140 to transmit information to that effect to the aggregation server 10 as information related to the viewing status of the program. Information related to the viewing status of a program includes, for example, information for identifying a program (a combination of a program name and a date, or a combination of a program name and a broadcast time), and operation details (real-time playback, recording playback, move, Copy, scheduled recording, and deletion) information.

  The processor 170a basically controls to record each time a series program composed of a plurality of programs based on the electronic program guide.

  In the present embodiment, the processor 170a specifies a series program based on the electronic program guide obtained from the receiving unit 110. The processor 170a specifies a group of programs having the same program name as a series program by text matching based on the program name for each program included in the electronic program guide. Or processor 170a may specify a program group of the same program name belonging to a specific genre (drama, animation, etc.) as a series program based on genre information for every program contained in an electronic program guide. The program name is indicated by “upnp: genre” included in “property of channel item”, and the genre information is indicated by “dc: title” included in “property of channel item” (see ARIB STD B21). ). The processor 170a may specify, as a series program, a program group having the same program name as a program with a symbol such as “new” or “end” based on a specific symbol for each program included in the electronic program guide. .

  When the communication unit 140 can receive the electronic program guide via the network 1, the processor 170a may acquire and use the electronic program guide via the network 1.

  The processor 170a acquires, from the aggregation server 10, statistical information about a series of programs that were broadcast before the n-th program before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program among the plurality of programs is broadcast. To do. Here, it is preferable that the processor 170a obtains statistical information in a designated area (such as an area in which the processor 170a resides). As described above, the statistical information is the number of views for each program, viewing rate, playback number, playback rate, move number, move rate, copy number, copy rate, reserved recording rate, reserved recording rate, deletion number, or deletion. Any one of the rates, or a combination of these information.

  Then, based on the acquired statistical information, the processor 170a cancels the recording reservation for all programs after the nth program in the series program. In this embodiment, the processor 170a sets a threshold value according to statistical information about the first program among the series programs, and compares the statistical information with the threshold value for each program from the first program to the nth program among the series programs. The number of times that the statistical information is less than or equal to the threshold is counted, and when the number of consecutive counts exceeds the specified number, the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program in the series program is canceled.

  For example, when the value of half of the number of views of the first program of a series program is set as a threshold value, the number of views of each program after the second time of the series program is compared with the threshold value. Cancel recording reservation for all programs after the series program. As a result, series programs that gradually decrease in popularity can be excluded from the recording reservation targets. In contrast, series programs that gradually increase in popularity can continue recording reservations, so that series programs with high viewing value can be recorded automatically. In addition, if the number of times the threshold value is below the threshold value occurs continuously, the number of viewers will be less than the threshold value by the number of times affected by back programs with high attention such as the Olympics and World Cup broadcasts. The influence of the case can be eliminated.

  Note that the processor 170a may adjust the threshold value (a value half the initial audience rating) according to the free space of the HDD 120. For example, when the free space is small, the recording reservation can be avoided as much as possible by setting the threshold higher than usual. On the other hand, when the free space is large, the recording reservation can be performed as much as possible by lowering the threshold value than usual.

  Further, when canceling the recording reservation for all the programs after the n-th program in the series program, the processor 170a displays all the recorded programs from the first program to the (n-1) -th program in the series program. Delete from the HDD 120. Thereby, the recording capacity of the HDD 120 can be further saved.

  Furthermore, when the recording to the last program in the series program is completed, the processor 170a acquires the statistical information about the series program from the aggregation server 10 even after the recording to the last program is completed. When it is determined that it is not appropriate to leave the series program based on the statistical information, the entire recorded series program may be deleted from the HDD 120.

(Operation of recording and playback device)
Hereinafter, one series program handled by the recording / playback apparatus 100 will be described in the order of (1) operation for the first program, (2) operation for the second and subsequent programs, and (3) operation after the last program.

(1) Operation for First Program FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart of the recording / playback apparatus 100 for the first program among the series programs.

  As illustrated in FIG. 5, in step S <b> 101, the processor 170 a acquires the electronic program guide output from the receiving unit 110.

  In step S102, the processor 170a specifies a series program based on the electronic program guide acquired in step S101. As described above, the processor 170a is based on at least one of the program name for each program included in the electronic program guide, the genre information for each program included in the electronic program guide, and the specific symbol for each program included in the electronic program guide. To identify the series program.

  In step S103, the processor 170a makes a recording reservation for the initial program of the series program specified in step S102. Specifically, the channel and broadcast date and time of the initial program are registered based on the electronic program guide acquired in step S101.

  In step S104, the processor 170a executes reserved recording of the initial program. Specifically, when the processor 170a detects that the date and time registered in step S103 is reached based on the current date and time output by the time measuring unit 160, the processor 170a outputs the signal from the tuner 111 corresponding to the channel registered in step S103. The HDD 120 is controlled to record the program.

(2) Operation for Second and Later Programs FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the recording / playback apparatus 100 for the second and subsequent programs (that is, the nth program) in the series programs. It is assumed that the nth program is not the last program. The flow may be executed immediately before the broadcast of the nth program, may be executed immediately after the completion of the reserved recording of the (n-1) th program, or is executed at a preset time (such as midnight). Also good.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in step S201, the processor 170a identifies the channel and broadcast date / time of the nth program based on the electronic program guide output from the receiving unit 110.

  In step S <b> 202, the processor 170 a acquires (n−1) -th program statistical information and initial program statistical information from the aggregation server 10. If this information is recorded in a non-volatile memory or the like when the statistical information of the first program is acquired, the recorded information is recorded instead of acquiring the statistical information of the first program when performing step S202 thereafter. The initial program statistical information may be read out.

  In step S203, the processor 170a sets a threshold according to the statistical information of the first program, and compares the statistical information of the (n-1) th program with the threshold. As described above, the threshold value may be adjusted in consideration of the free capacity of the HDD 120.

  (N-1) If the statistical information of the nth program is larger than the threshold (step S203; NO), in step S204, the processor 170a makes a recording reservation for the nth program specified in step S201. Specifically, the specified channel and broadcast date and time specified in step S201 are registered.

  In step S205, the processor 170a executes reserved recording of the nth program. Specifically, when the processor 170a detects that the date and time registered in step S204 is reached based on the current date and time output by the time measuring unit 160, the processor 170a outputs the signal from the tuner 111 corresponding to the channel registered in step S204. The HDD 120 is controlled to record the program. After that, the processor 170a adds 1 to the broadcast count value “n” and returns the process to step S201.

  On the other hand, when the statistical information of the (n-1) th program is equal to or smaller than the threshold (step S203; YES), in step S207, the processor 170a adds 1 to the count value A corresponding to the series program.

  In step S208, the processor 170a checks whether or not the count value A has reached a specified number of times (for example, twice). If the count value A has not reached the specified number of times (step S208; NO), the processor 170a advances the process to step S204 and makes a recording reservation for the nth program.

  On the other hand, when the count value A has reached the specified number of times (step S208; YES), in step S209, the processor 170a cancels the reservation so as not to make a recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program of the series program. Register. In addition, the processor 170 a deletes all the recorded programs from the initial program to the (n−1) th program of the series program from the HDD 120.

(3) Operation after the Final Program FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of the recording / playback apparatus 100 after the final program in the series program.

  As shown in FIG. 7, in step S301, the processor 170a detects the last time based on the electronic program guide, and when the reserved recording of the corresponding program is completed, or when the scheduled recording is regularly performed, When the number of times that the target program cannot be detected from the program table exceeds a certain number, it is determined that the corresponding series program has ended. If it is determined that the corresponding series program has ended, the series reservation task for the target program is ended in step S302.

  In step S303, if the value is not high enough to leave the program after the series program ends, the processor 170a deletes the entire series program and increases the free space of the HDD 120.

  Here, the determination whether to leave or delete the recorded video of the target series program is performed periodically (for example, every month) as long as the recorded program remains in the HDD 120 even after the series program ends. For the determination, among the above-described statistical information, the number of reproductions (or reproduction rate), the number of moves (or movement rate), the number of copies (or copy rate), and the number of deletions (or deletion rate) can be used. If it meets the criteria and is subject to deletion, it may be deleted unconditionally, but a process of prompting the user's decision by displaying a message “Can you delete (xxx program)?” May be added. The number of playback (or playback rate), the number of moves (or move rate), the number of copies (or copy rate), and the number of deletions (or deletion rate) can be used as criteria for determining whether to leave a recorded program. In this case, however, it is desirable that the reproduction performance of the user himself (per unit device) and the copy / move performance are more important than the statistical information of the aggregation server 10.

(Summary)
As described above, the recording / playback apparatus 100 makes a recording reservation so that a plurality of programs constituting a series program are recorded every time, so that recording is performed in a state where a part of the plurality of programs (for example, the first program) is missing. Can be prevented. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not appropriate to continue recording reservations based on statistical information about programs broadcast in the past, recording reservations for all subsequent programs in the series program can be canceled. The recording capacity of the HDD 120 can be saved. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately save the recording capacity of the HDD 120 in consideration of the characteristics of the series program.

  In the present embodiment, the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 has already recorded from the first program to the (n-1) th program in the series program when canceling the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program in the series program. All programs are deleted from the HDD 120. Thereby, the recording capacity of the HDD 120 can be further saved. In the present embodiment, the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 sets a threshold according to statistical information about the first program among the series programs. The recording / reproducing apparatus 100 compares the statistical information with a threshold for each program from the first program to the n-th program in the series program, counts the number of times the statistical information is less than the threshold, and the counted number is equal to or greater than the specified number. In this case, the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program in the series program is canceled. As a result, series programs that gradually decrease in popularity can be excluded from the recording reservation targets. In contrast, series programs that gradually increase in popularity can continue recording reservations, so that series programs with high viewing value can be recorded automatically.

  In the present embodiment, the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes a program name for each program included in the electronic program guide, genre information for each program included in the electronic program guide, or a specific symbol for each program included in the electronic program guide. A series program is identified based on at least one. Thereby, a series program can be specified automatically. In the present embodiment, the recording / reproducing apparatus 100 detects all the recorded programs included in the series program from the HDD 120 based on the statistical information about the series program after detecting the last program among the series programs. Thereby, the recording capacity of the HDD 120 can be further saved.

(Other embodiments)
As mentioned above, although this invention was described by embodiment, it should not be understood that the description and drawing which form a part of this indication limit this invention. From this disclosure, various alternative embodiments, examples and operational techniques will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

  For example, even when the audience rating is kept constant, there is a case where the remaining capacity of the HDD 120 is greatly affected when continuously recording one series program broadcast for a long period of time. In such a case, among the above-described statistical information, the recorded program is determined even if the entire series is not finished by making a determination with emphasis on the reproduction performance and copy / move performance of the user himself (per unit device). May be deleted.

  In addition, even for a low-popularity program indicated by statistical information, for a series program that the user wants to record, a flag is set according to the user input, and recording continues for the series program for which the flag is set In addition, automatic deletion may be prohibited. The flag may be applied only to a specific number of programs in the series program. That is, the flag is set to prohibit the deletion of a specific number of programs, and even when the entire series program is deleted, only the corresponding program may be left. Similarly, although the entire series program remains, only the corresponding program may be deleted.

  In the above-described embodiment, the recording / playback apparatus 100 as an embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention has been described as an example. However, the recording / playback apparatus 100 may not necessarily have a playback function and may be a dedicated recording apparatus.

  In the embodiment described above, the recording server 10 described to be executed by the recording / playback apparatus 100 may be executed by the aggregation server 10. In this case, the recording control according to the above-described embodiment is performed on the aggregation server 10 side, and a recording reservation command and a recorded program deletion are transmitted from the aggregation server 10 to the recording / reproducing apparatus 100.

  The various processes described above can be implemented by a program, and the PC may be used as a recording apparatus according to the present invention by causing the PC to execute the program. In this case, the receiving unit 110 may be externally attached to the PC.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Network, 10 ... Aggregation server, 11 ... Communication part, 12 ... HDD, 13 ... Control part, 13a ... Processor, 13b ... Memory, 100 ... Recording / reproducing apparatus, 101 ... Antenna, 110 ... Reception part, 111-1- 111-m ... tuner, 120 ... HDD, 130 ... playback unit, 140 ... communication unit, 150 ... input unit, 160 ... timing unit, 170 ... control unit, 170a ... processor, 170b ... memory

Claims (10)

A recording control system comprising: a recording apparatus that records a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium; and a server that is provided on a network and that collects information on the viewing status of the program and manages statistical information for each program. There,
The recording device has a control unit that identifies a series program composed of a plurality of programs and reserves recording so as to record the plurality of programs each time,
The control unit obtains statistical information about a program broadcast before the n-th program among the series programs before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program among the plurality of programs is broadcast. Acquisition means to acquire from the server;
Based on the acquired statistical information, canceling means for canceling recording reservation for all the programs after the n-th program among the series programs,
A video recording control system. A recording device for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium,
A control unit that identifies a series program consisting of a plurality of programs and reserves recording to record the plurality of programs each time;
The controller is
Acquisition means for acquiring statistical information about a program broadcast in the past from the n-th program among the series programs before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program is broadcast among the plurality of programs. When,
Based on the acquired statistical information, canceling means for canceling recording reservation for all the programs after the n-th program among the series programs,
A recording apparatus comprising: The controller is
When canceling the recording reservation for all the programs after the nth program in the series program, all the recorded programs from the first program to the (n-1) th program are deleted from the recording medium. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a deleting unit. The controller is
Setting means for setting a threshold according to statistical information about a predetermined number of times past the n-th time program among the series programs;
Counting means for comparing statistical information with the threshold for each program from the predetermined program to the n-th program in the series program, and counting the number of times the statistical information is equal to or less than the threshold;
Further including
3. The canceling unit cancels recording reservation for all programs after the n-th program in the series program when the number of times counted by the counting unit exceeds a specified number. Or the recording device of 3.   The recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the setting unit adjusts the threshold according to a free space of the recording medium. The controller is
A specifying means for specifying the series program based on an electronic program guide obtained from the television broadcast wave or the network;
The specifying means includes at least one of a program name for each program included in the electronic program guide, genre information for each program included in the electronic program guide, or a specific symbol for each program included in the electronic program guide. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the series program is specified based on the recording program.   The deletion unit, after detecting the last program among the series programs, deletes all recorded programs included in the series program from the recording medium based on statistical information about the series program. The recording apparatus according to claim 3.   The statistical information is at least one of viewing number, viewing rate, playback number, playback rate, move number, move rate, copy number, copy rate, reserved recording number, reserved recording rate, deletion number, or deletion rate for each program. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the recording apparatus is a recording apparatus. A recording control method for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium,
Identifying a series program consisting of multiple programs;
Reserving recording so that the plurality of programs are recorded each time;
Obtaining statistical information on a program broadcast in the past from the n-th program before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program is broadcast among the plurality of programs;
Based on the acquired statistical information, canceling the recording reservation for all programs after the n-th program among the series programs;
The recording control method characterized by including. A recording control program for recording a program included in a television broadcast wave on a recording medium,
In the recording device,
Identifying a series program consisting of multiple programs;
Reserving recording so that the plurality of programs are recorded each time;
Obtaining statistical information about a program broadcast before the n-th program from the server before the n-th (n ≧ 2) program among the plurality of programs is broadcast; ,
Based on the acquired statistical information, canceling the recording reservation for all programs after the n-th program among the series programs;
A recording control program for executing

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